Development of Multicourse Undergraduate Learning Communities (MULC) in a Civil Engineering Technology and Construction Management Curriculum

The project based classroom has grown in popularity with the academic community, primarily due to the new generation of students responding poorly to the deductive, or professor centered classroom. Unfortunately, collaborative work or team assignments are frequently completed by students working independently during the project and combining work near the due date. This negates the intention of cross team communication and the group approach to solving problems. Regrettably, this model of team assignments where students work independently without the intended cross team communication is prevalent on many campuses nationwide. In an effort to effectively engage the new construction management student and provide a “real life” experience, the authors developed the Multicourse Undergraduate Learning Community (MULC). The Multicourse Undergraduate Learning Communities (MULC) project is an instructional tool that utilizes a “real world” project that engages two or more courses in a curriculum. The project is selected based on its ability to simulate industry team relationships as well as reinforcing course learning objectives. With MULC projects, students from each course rely on one another for project deliverables, such as a highway design engineer would rely on a surveyor for land data. The MULC project that was implemented utilized two courses: ETCE 2112 Construction Surveying and ETCE 4251 Highway Design and Construction. In this structure, the instructor driven project was replaced with a student driven model that simulates industry relationships. The project consisted of the design and layout of an access road for a new traffic pattern on campus. Each surveying group was paired with a highway design group to complete the project. The highway design teams (senior level) served as the project lead and each surveying team (sophomore level) was required to communicate with their highway design counterparts to collaboratively complete this project. This paper presents the development of a civil engineering technology/construction management MULC model and the results of the first delivery of a MULC project. Introduction As of December 2010, the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) results revealed that U.S. students ranked 17th in science and 25th in math out of 70 other developed countries.[1] Unfortunately, these rankings are neither new to the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) community nor have they varied significantly over the last decade. For years, the approach to the classroom in STEM disciplines has been the lecture/homework model that is based primarily on introvert learning (singular student). [2] The traditional STEM educational model is inconsistent with preferred learning styles of the current student population. According to Schroeder, “... new students, compared to their more traditional predecessors, prefer a high degree of personalism.... They adapt quite well to group activities and collaborative learning.”[3] Slavin, et. al., further point out that learning is improved or enhanced when students are engaged in challenging, related course materials.[4] These findings echo a trend toward more inductive or project based learning that has been P ge 24428.2 Page 2 of 10 documented in recent literature. [5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12] As such, new models are required to move the STEM disciplines forward. Finger, et al. informs that rarely does a professor or a company plan to use the results generated from an engineering project performed by engineering student groups. Furthermore, the students work in an unstructured environment even if project roles have been assigned. [13] In addition, collaborative work or team assignments are frequently completed by students working independently during the project and combining work near the due date. This negates the intention of cross team communication and the group approach to solving problems. Regrettably, this model of team assignments where students work independently without the intended cross team communication is prevalent in STEM disciplines on many campuses nationwide. In an effort to overcome these collaborative learning shortcomings and engage the new STEM student, the authors propose the development of the Multicourse Undergraduate Learning Community (MULC). The Multicourse Undergraduate Learning Community (MULC) process demands student engagement in a vertically integrated project scheme where student teams in multiple courses in the curriculum are interacting and utilizing others’ work products during the term. Teams of students from one course are paired with student teams from other courses to complete a larger comprehensive project. As students progress in the curriculum, they move up through the hierarchy of courses, tasks and project responsibilities over a three year period. These multicourse teams are selected to model synergistic teams often found in industry and can include courses in surveying/highway design, biology/environmental design, or linear algebra/structural analysis. While these are examples of STEM courses combined within a civil engineering, civil engineering technology or construction management curriculum, the process can be readily extended to other STEM disciplines. Project Rationale and Model The purpose of this project is develop a vertically integrated learning community within the curriculum whereby students assume genuine leadership roles resulting in superior collaborative interaction and communication, improved time management and accountability, and enhanced outcome achievement throughout the undergraduate experience. Multiple instructional methods provide value within the educational paradigm. When employed in concert, traditional, inductive, experiential and project based learning all have their place in the STEM classroom. Referring to Figure 1, traditional classrooms often operate autonomously with one another throughout the curriculum even when Course A is a prerequisite to Course B. Students may not be shown or recognize the linkages between the courses and the importance of Course A to Course B, C or D, for instance. Students who experience Course B during the completion of Course A should better appreciate and integrate the learning objectives of both courses.